Running Under Sail - a Connie Barrera Thriller (Connie Barrera Thrillers Book 5)

by Charles Dougherty

  The nav app was showing her ETA as ten minutes when she thought she saw something white in the ambient light off her starboard bow. She kept her eyes moving, knowing that she'd see whatever it was better out of the side of her vision. She picked up another flicker of white, a little closer and farther off her course. She was approaching something, but it wasn't showing any lights. Another small boat was a possibility, raising sheets of spray, but she should be picking up a light of some kind. Whales were also out here; a cavorting humpback would make splashes at least as big as a boat.

  She looked down at the dashboard to be sure her own nav lights were on, and decided to hold her course and speed. She was still about ten miles from where she expected to find Diamantista II.

  ****

  Paul inhaled the aroma of sour coffee from the plastic cup he held. He wrinkled his nose and took a sip anyway, glad that Phillip had thought to fill a thermos. They were idling along on a westerly course, keeping Diamantista II in sight off their starboard bow.

  There was a soft pop from the radio as someone broke squelch, and then they heard the helicopter pilot calling.

  "Ice Six, Ice Six, this is Ice Two, over."

  Phillip picked up the radio. "Roger, Two. This is Six. Go ahead."

  "Six, Two. We have a target on a bearing of 230 degrees true from your location, coming fast. Fifty to sixty knots, no radar contact. We have infrared and visual with the starlight scope, but we can't make out much detail. Too much sea clutter, and he's moving too fast. There is a second target on radar, same bearing. Range to target two is 28 kilometers. Radar return looks like a ship, dead in the water. Request instructions."

  "Two, Six," Phillip said. "Roger that. Wait one. Ice Three, do you copy?"

  "Ice Three. I copy. Over."

  "Three, Two, this is Ice Six. Three, check out the first target. Two, keep that small target in sight until Three gets there. Acknowledge. Over."

  "Ice Six, Ice Two. Copy. Will comply. Over."

  "Ice Six, Ice Three. Will comply. Over."

  "Ice Six, standing by."

  "Sounds like this could be it," Phillip said. "Any of that coffee left?"

  "Only one small boat?" Paul asked, passing him the thermos.

  "They aren't expecting trouble. Probably a couple of guys with assault rifles and grenades."

  "What are you going to do?"

  "Once we see who they are, we'll decide. If it's the bad guys, we'll grease 'em and — "

  "Ice Six, Ice Three."

  "This is Six, go ahead, Three."

  "Six, Three. I have the target in sight with the starlight scope. I think he's spotted me. He's slowed down, I've got one person, standing up, probably trying to figure out what we are. Permission to approach and identify?"

  "Three, Six. Roger that. Approach and identify. Ice Two, drop down and cover Three."

  "Six, Two. Roger that drop down and cover."

  They passed a tense thirty seconds, and then the radio squawked again.

  "Ice Six, Ice Three. We're in hailing distance with the spotlight on target one. We have one female on board, hands in the air. Identifies herself as Connie Barrera. Says she's alone. Request instructions."

  Paul was on his feet, reaching for the radio when Sharktooth wrapped a big arm around his chest from behind and picked him up.

  "Three, Six," Phillip said. "Approach with care and take her aboard your vessel. Acknowledge."

  "Six, Three. Roger."

  Sharktooth kept a loose grip on Paul while they waited.

  "Six, Three. We have her. She's by herself, unharmed. Wants to talk to whoever's in charge. Over."

  "Three, Six. Wait one. Ice Two, Ice Two, Ice Six. Over."

  "Six, this is Two. Over."

  "Ice Two, go check out that second target. Ice Three, give Ms. Barrera your backup radio on tac two frequency. Acknowledge. Over."

  Phillip reached into his belt pack and handed Paul his backup radio.

  "Ice Six, Ice Two. Roger. En route to second target. ETA seven minutes. Over."

  "Two, Six. Roger. Three, can you safely take that boat in tow?"

  "Six, Three. Roger that."

  "Three, Six. Proceed to Ice Six with Ms. Barrera and the other boat. Did you give her the radio?"

  "Six, Two. Roger. She's got it; we had to activate it. Over."

  "Paul? Phillip?" Connie's voice came from the radio that Paul held.

  "This is Paul. You okay? Over."

  "I'm fine as frog's hair, as my husband says. I've got the last known GPS position for Morning Mist. She can't have moved far. It's on my phone's screen, and I'm giving it to the guys here. Over."

  "Okay. We've got 'em on radar. The chopper just left your position headed out there. Pratt aboard? Over."

  "Yes, but hang on. There's 100 kilos of cocaine stashed in the ballast pod of a two-man sub that's in the garage. I've got a one-kilo sample, and photographs of the rest, just in case. You might want a warrant or something before you go charging in. Over."

  "I think we're solid with what you just gave us, but Phillip's getting patched through to the DEA as we speak. We'll let them decide. Hurry home. Over."

  "As fast as I can. See you in a minute or two. Over."

  Chapter 27

  "What happened?" Paul asked, as Connie climbed over the side of Lightning Bolt and gave him a big hug. "How did you get away? We thought — "

  She put a finger over his lips. "I'll tell you all about it, but I need to make sure I get to talk to Pratt before he's taken away."

  Phillip joined them. "DEA is on their way with a Coast Guard boarding party; we're just supposed to keep an eye on Morning Mist until the cavalry comes."

  "Okay, but make sure I get to talk to Pratt after they catch him. I've got my reputation to protect, here."

  "We go to Diamantista II now? Or stay here?" Sharktooth asked.

  "I'd rather stay on Lightning Bolt for the sake of mobility," Phillip said. "That okay?"

  "Fine with me," Connie said. "Who's on Diamantista II?"

  "Marie LaCroix and one of her men," Paul said. "She's in good hands. They're under power; Marie doesn't trust her sailing skills. They'll take her back for us; they even buoyed the anchor chain and left it set, so don't worry."

  "And where's Sadie?" Connie asked.

  "With Sandrine," Paul said. "What happened, damn it?"

  "The short version is that Pratt thinks I'm fronting for one of the Mexican cartels. I just cut a deal with him to smuggle all the coke he can get from Hector Ochoa into Europe via Martinique. I spun him a tale about all of you being mercenaries who work for the DEA sometimes, but your real allegiance is to the Unione Corse. That's how it was going to work. Except you, of course, Paul. You're my dupe; I'm playing you to get inside information from the MPD and you think I'm some kind of double agent, working on the same side as you. You're kind of an upscale version of Louie Delgado, the way I sold it to Pratt."

  Sharktooth laughed. "What I say? I told you Connie gon' mess the mon up bad."

  Phillip turned away to take a call on his satellite phone, and Paul asked, "How on earth — "

  "I'll tell you everything later, but most of it traces back to Alfano; he still thinks the Mexicans did him in, starting with Savannah and finishing with the diamonds. I helped Pratt along a little bit by telling him that my job had been to get all our competition arrested so we had a clear field to play. He thinks I set Giannetti and Greco up for you and the DEA, too."

  "All your competition?" Paul asked. "You mean, for this mythical Mexican cartel of yours?"

  Connie grinned and nodded. "You're a lot quicker than Pratt."

  "I can't believe you sold him that story," Paul said. "Why would he fall for that?"

  "Stupidity and greed, lubricated by testosterone. Why else? Works every time. I just bat my eyes and tell 'em how strong and smart they are."

  Phillip broke in, his hand over the mouthpiece of the satellite phone. "The DEA and the Coast Guard have taken Morning Mist. They're about
to put Pratt on the line. I had to call in some major favors so you could talk to him; you'd better make this good, Connie."

  "I promise," she said, smiling. She raised the phone to her ear and waited a few seconds.

  "Jonas?" she said, and there was a stream of profanity from the other end of the connection. "Jonas, it's me, Connie. Shut up and listen; this is all your fault. I could have saved you, but that sample you gave me was shit. Too bad. We can't sell that kind of stuff; it's not worth our trouble. You should have been straight with me. It's too late, now. We could have had a lot of fun if you'd been able to hold up your end of the deal. Oh, and if you breathe one word about me to the cops, you'll get what Murano got. And tell Alfano hello for me, please. Bye-bye, schmuck."

  She handed the phone back to Phillip, who spoke a few words and disconnected. "What was that all about?" he asked, turning back to her.

  "I'm just trying to keep the troops in line," Connie said. "One of the fundamental rules of a good con is to let your mark down easy. It's better for everybody if those fools think they got burned by another cartel. If Alfano knew the truth about me, I'd have been in serious trouble just now. Let them hold on to their delusions. You never know when it might come in handy."

  Phillip nodded. "I need to call Sandrine; she and Sadie were worried about you, for some reason." He thumbed a button on the phone and raised it to his ear.

  Sharktooth opened the throttles and turned Lightning Bolt toward Ste. Anne.

  Paul put his arm around Connie and shook his head, grinning. "You amaze me, skipper."

  "Take me home, sailor. I'm tired."

  Epilogue

  Two days later, on Phillip's veranda ...

  "From what Luke said, Pratt's telling everything he knows," Paul said. He had just rejoined the group for a sundowner after spending the afternoon on a conference call with the DEA task force of which he'd once been a member. "He rolled over on Xavier Rojas straightaway. With Sadie's deposition and Pratt's testimony, the Feds think they've got a good chance of extraditing Ochoa."

  "What's become of Delgado?" Connie asked. "Did they figure out if he killed your ex?"

  "The DNA match would have convicted him, but it's too late."

  "He got away?" Sadie asked.

  "Not quite," Paul said. "He and his 19-year-old stripper were found in her apartment. It looked like a murder-suicide at first. They thought he shot the girl and then blew his brains out, but the M.E. says Delgado couldn't have fired the shot that killed him unless he had two elbows in his right arm. Somebody wanted him silenced."

  "And speaking of silenced," Paul continued, looking at Connie, "Your friend Jonas won't even admit to knowing your name. Luke says his face goes pale every time somebody mentions you. I guess you made an impression on him. You definitely made one on Freddy Thompson."

  "What's happening to him?" Sadie asked.

  "He lost his leg; somebody put a tourniquet on it and forgot about it. He's in rough shape. If he recovers, he'll never see daylight again," Paul said. "The police in Antigua found two witnesses that put him with Tom Connolly the night he was attacked, and the bartender admitted that he'd been threatened if he didn't change his story about recognizing Freddy. But Antigua's in line behind a bunch of other people that want to send Freddy away. "

  "What happened to his leg?" Sadie asked. "Why a tourniquet?"

  "Uh ... " Paul said, looking at Connie.

  "He tried to hit me when they snatched me; I don't like men that hit women. I was trying for something a little higher with the knife, but I missed and nicked his femoral artery."

  "Oh." Sadie's face went pale and she raised a hand to her mouth. "When you said you were struggling with him and Pratt fired a shot, I didn't realize ... "

  "Connie, she got the temper," Sharktooth said, grinning. "I knew them fellas was in trouble soon as I heard they mess up her teak. Took me two days to fix that deck."

  "Thanks, Sharktooth," Connie said. "I guess that means we're squared away and ready for sea. Do you still want to go to the Tobago Cays tomorrow, Sadie?"

  Sadie didn't answer for several seconds. As she looked around the table, she stifled a sob. Taking a deep breath, she began to speak. "I'm so grateful to all of you; I don't know what to say. After what I've put us through, I'm so ashamed. None of this would have happened if I hadn't stooped to ... to ... "

  Connie put an arm around the girl's shoulders. "Stop it, Sadie. People help one another; that's the way things should be."

  "But ... I ... the things I did ... "

  "Brought us all together. Now put the unpleasant memories behind you. Remember what I told you? About doing what you had to do to survive?"

  "Yes. Yes, I know you're right. Sorry for the emotional outburst." Sadie picked up her wineglass and took a sip. "By the way, what happened to the half million dollars?"

  "Yeah, Connie?" Paul asked, taking a sip of his own wine.

  "What half million dollars?" Connie asked, her eyes flashing a warning in Paul's direction.

  Paul shook his head. "I'm – "

  "You're confused, cookie. There's no half million dollars — not that I know of, anyway."

  Paul swallowed hard, started to speak, and then stopped. After a few seconds, he raised his glass. "Here's to a beautiful sunset this evening and a new beginning tomorrow,"

  "New beginnings," the group murmured in chorus.

  "And no more running under sail," Connie said. "Life's all beam reaches from here on."

  ****

  A Note to the Reader

  Thank you for reading Running Under Sail – A Connie Barrera Thriller, the fifth book in the Connie Barrera Thriller series. I hope that you enjoyed it. If so, please leave a brief review on Amazon. Reviews are of great benefit to independent authors like me; they help me more than you can imagine. They are a primary means to help new readers find my work. A few words from you can help others find the pleasure that I hope you found in this book, as well as keeping my spirits up as I work on the next one. If you would like to be notified by email when I release a new book or have a sale or giveaway, please click here to subscribe to my email list. I promise not to use the list for anything else; I dislike spam as much as you do.

  If you haven't read the other Connie Barrera Thrillers, please take a look at them. If you enjoyed this book, you'll enjoy them as well. Connie had a key role in Deception in Savannah, my first book. She also plays prominent parts in both Bluewater Ice and Bluewater Betrayal, the fourth and fifth books in the Bluewater Thrillers series. These three books make up the boxed set entitled From Deception to Betrayal - an Introduction to Connie Barrera. The Connie Barrera Thrillers are a spin-off from the Bluewater Thrillers, and share some of the same characters. The Bluewater Thrillers feature Dani Berger and Liz Chirac. They run a charter yacht named Vengeance, a sistership of Diamantista II’s. Dani and Liz taught Connie to sail, and they introduced her to Paul Russo, her first mate and husband.

  I'm writing the eleventh Bluewater Thriller; it will be available late in the second quarter of 2016. Then I'll turn my attention back to Connie and Paul in their sixth adventure. You'll find progress reports and more information on my web page at www.clrdougherty.com. Be sure to click on the link to my blog posts; it's in the column on the right side of the web page. Dani Berger has begun to blog about what's on her mind, and Liz and Connie are demanding equal time, so you can see what they're up to while I'm writing.

  A list of my other books is on the last page; just click on a title or go to my website for more information. If you’d like to know when my next book is released, visit my author’s page on Amazon and click the "Stay Up to Date" link near the upper left-hand corner. I welcome email correspondence about books, boats and sailing. My address is clrd@clrdougherty.com. If you'd like personal updates, drop me a line at that address and let me know. Thanks again for your support.

  About C.L.R. Dougherty

  Charles Dougherty wrote quite a bit of fiction before publishing Deception in Savannah, his
first novel. Most of his earlier fiction works took the form of business plans, written to secure funding for projects and startup ventures during his corporate and consulting work, but he put all that behind him when he wrote Deception in Savannah, a tongue-in-cheek crime novel.

  Since Deception in Savannah was published, he has written a number of other books. The Bluewater Thrillers are set in the yachting world of the Caribbean and chronicle the adventures of two young women running a luxury charter yacht in a rough-and-tumble environment. The Connie Barrera Thrillers are also set in the Caribbean and feature some of the same characters from a slightly more romantic perspective. Besides the Bluewater Thrillers and the Connie Barrera Thrillers, he wrote The Redemption of Becky Jones, a psycho-thriller, and The Lost Tourist Franchise, a short story about one of the characters from Deception in Savannah.

  He has also written two non-fiction books. Life's a Ditch is the story of how he and his wife moved aboard their sailboat, Play Actor, and their adventures along the east coast of the U.S. Dungda de Islan' relates their experiences while cruising the Caribbean.

  He resides with his wife aboard Play Actor, sailing wherever their fancy and the trade winds take them.

  Other Books by C.L.R. Dougherty

  Fiction:

  Bluewater Killer

  Bluewater Vengeance

  Bluewater Voodoo

  Bluewater Ice

  Bluewater Betrayal

  Bluewater Stalker

  Bluewater Bullion

  Bluewater Rendezvous

  Bluewater Ganja

  Bluewater Jailbird

  Bluewater Thrillers Boxed Set; Books 1-3

  Love for Sail - a Connie Barrera Thriller

  Sailor's Delight – a Connie Barrera Thriller

  A Blast to Sail – a Connie Barrera Thriller

  Storm Sail - a Connie Barrera Thriller

  From Deception to Betrayal - an Introduction to Connie Barrera

  Deception in Savannah

  The Redemption of Becky Jones

  Short Story:

  The Lost Tourist Franchise